The Al Huda International Welfare Foundation, an Islamic charity registered with the Pakistani government, has emerged in recent years at the forefront of teaching Islam to Pakistani women, especially those from the higher echelons of Pakistani society. According to the charity's website, its main objectives are: to promote purely Islamic values and thinking on sound knowledge and research, free from bias and sectarianism; and to work for the welfare of society's lower classes.[1]
The charity was founded in 1994 by Dr. Farhat Naseem Hashmi, who received an MA in Arabic from the University of Punjab, Lahore, in 1980, and later obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies with specialization in Hadith Sciences (i.e. sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), from the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.[2] Latest reports indicate that Dr. Hashmi is now based in Canada, and from there offers online courses in Islamic teachings to Muslim women based in the U.S. and Canada via paltalk.com and inspeak.com.
In the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, there has been a movement of the educated Pakistani elite toward right-wing Islamic groups. During this period, a network of Al Huda schools emerged in various Pakistani towns, offering Islamic teachings to women. According to the Al Huda website, the group offers a range of diploma and post-diploma courses, e.g. Taleem-ul-Islam – one and one-and-half year diploma in Islamic teachings for women and girls; Taleem-ul-Quran – one year diploma in both English and Urdu for girls; post-diploma 'Advance Course' in the in-depth knowledge of the Koran and deeds of the prophet; and a number of evening, summer and crash courses. These schools have become popular among the rich class of Pakistan in recent years.
However, there are now concerns that the Al Huda network of schools promotes an Islamist version of Islam that isolates its students in their religious practices from mainstream Pakistani society. Recently, prominent Pakistani journalist Khaled Ahmed, who is also the Director of South Asia Free Media Association, reviewed a book on the workings of Al-Huda schools. The book, "Transforming Faith: The Story of Al Huda and Islamic Revivalism among Urban Pakistani Women" (Syracuse University Press 2009), is authored by Sadaf Ahmad, an assistant professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore.
In his review article, titled "Daughters of Al Huda," Khaled Ahmed argued that suicide bombers are produced in isolation from society, of the kind Al Huda schools are promoting in Pakistan. Ahmed cited the book as saying that Al Huda's followers reject photography, all festivals, and birthday celebrations, including the birthday of the Prophet. His article was followed by another article, "Al Huda – an Insider's View" by Habiba Younis, a former Al Huda student. Younis, who is beginning her education at the International Islamic University of Islamabad, rejected some points in Khaled Ahmed's article but argued that Al Huda is not an "inspiration to instill enlightenment or rationality in society." Excerpts from both the articles are given below:
"Hashmi's Denouncement of Various Cultural Practices and Disapproval of Westerners and Indians Helps Women Redefine Their Own Identity as Muslims"
Following are excerpts from Khaled Ahmed's article:[3]
"We are wrong to look for terrorist tracts in the madrassa. The suicide bomber is not made through syllabi but through isolation from society. When we wish to produce a normal citizen we begin by socializing the child. Anyone withdrawing from society by rejecting its norms is ripe for the plucking by the terrorists. The residential madrassa does that. In Islamabad, a number of female 'dars' [lesson] groups are busy doing that in varying degrees.
"Sadaf Ahmad is an assistant professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore. Her book Transforming Faith: The Story of Al Huda and Islamic Revivalism among Urban Pakistani Women (Syracuse University Press 2009) studies a women's 'dars' group called Al Huda. Al Huda ladies wear hijab and abaya and are found in the big cities. They are usually well-heeled, using the group-isolating dars activity to reinvent personal identity through 'discovery' of Islam.
"Al Huda was founded in 1994 by Farhat Hashmi and husband Idrees Zubair, both PhDs from Scotland's famous center of Islamic learning, the University of Glasgow. Farhat, from [the town of] Sargodha, where her parents were both members of Islami Jamiat Tulaba [the students wing of Jamaat-e-Islami], is steeped in the 'dars' of the Jamaat-e-Islami and [its founder] Maulana Maududi's thought (p 40).
"I may sound prejudiced, but the book is not. It is completely without bias and is thoroughly researched. The Farhat-Idrees duo succeeded beyond expectations as their following among the middle and upper middle-class women swelled. Among the half a dozen 'dars' groups busy alienating women in Islamabad, Al Huda towered as the most powerful – 'symbolized by a large three-storey house on Nazimuddin Road in Islamabad' — spreading to other big cities too (p 41). The objective was to give 'authentic knowledge of the Koran and Sunnah,' cutting off the 'cultural accretions' that Maududi – and now the Taliban – reject.
SUPPORT OUR WORK
"Al Huda ladies began to alarm with their rejection of society. Some orthodox Muslims began to ask questions. The book says: 'Farhat Hashmi moved to Canada in 2005, and apparently there are a number of Muslims there who want her to leave' (p 196). The reason for the fear that some Canadian Muslims feel could be Al Huda's rejection as 'bidaa' [forbidden innovation] – of photography, all festivals, birthday celebrations, including the birthday of the Prophet…, and of the widespread practice of 'chehlum' [ceremony marking 40th day of one's death] after death (p 107).
"The book says: 'Farhat Hashmi's denouncement of various cultural practices and disapproval of Westerners and Indians helps women redefine their own identity as Muslims' (p 146). The burden of men's piety is on women, who must not reveal themselves lest men be helplessly sexually aroused. And the husband cannot rape because he must not be refused 'or the angels will curse her till morning' (p 170). The author found Al Huda graduates to be 'very intolerant and judgmental toward people who were different from them' (p 193).
"The Canadians are probably worried because Farhat thinks Osama bin Laden is an Islamic warrior. The author opines: 'They react strongly to her statements, such as her claim that the 80,000 Pakistanis who died in the 2005 earthquake did so because they were involved in immoral activities and had left the path of Islam, and fear that her brand of extremist Islam will further marginalize their Muslim communities within the country' (p 196).
"In December 2009, army officers and their children were massacred by terrorists while praying at the Parade Lane mosque in Rawalpindi. The ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence of the Pakistani military] finally caught up with the man who had organized the attack – 'a student of the International Islamic University,' whose father was a grade 19 officer in Islamabad with religious party connections, 'while the mother held Koranic dars for women in Islamabad' (Herald magazine, June 2010)."
Former Al Huda Student: [Al Huda Schools] "are Not Breeding Terrorists; Neither are They Planting Reasoning; Al Huda Believes in Conspiracy Theories"
Following are some excerpts from Habiba Younis's article:[4]
"Khaled Ahmed's recent article… met a negative and spirited response by readers. In my opinion, as a former student [of Al Huda], the reasoning in the article wasn't absolutely correct and seemed slightly prejudiced. But it did have some valid points. I don't believe Al Huda to be as ideal as it is portrayed but not because of the reasons given by the writer in his article but because of my own experience with the Al Huda community.
"Al Huda is administered by the four Hashmi sisters, all four of whom speak English and are seen by many urban-upper middle and upper-class women as modern Islamic revolutionaries. Al Huda students will say that the sisters are generous, pious, humble and down-to-earth but the truth is that they are proud and get easily offended if they are not treated like VIP celebrities. They are arrogant and cruel to servants and lower-grade employees.
"Having said that, contrary to what Khaled Ahmed's article hints at, they are not breeding terrorists. But neither are they planting reasoning or thinking seeds in their student's minds. Al Huda believes in conspiracy theories and students are led to believe that Muslims are perfect and this in turn means that they are not taught on how self-assessment as a Muslim is important. Students are told that the world is bad and Muslims are the best and that the former needs to reform itself. In my view, this makes for an individual who is not very humble and misses out on the humility inherent in Islam.
"As mentioned in the article, it is true that Al Huda caters only to the privileged class, and the audience of their 'dars' consists of rich elderly aunties who upon entering Al Huda circle act as if they just embraced Islam for the first time. But the writer's view that they isolate themselves from society is far from reality since these ladies are active in social events and gatherings.
"Unlike Khaled Ahmed's assertion, Al Huda students are quite tolerant, polite and not violent at all in their approach; so calling them future terrorists and suicide bombers is a rigid and bigoted perception in itself. The ladies gathered are pretty content discussing issues like the Day of Judgment, pleasures of paradise, horrors of hell and the menace of Star Plus [the Indian entertainment television channel]. And I assure him that none of them is as insane as wanting to blow herself up.
"It is quite understandable to consider Al Huda's concepts as outdated, rigid and conservative or orthodox but since the women gathered in their lectures have no intentions of enforcing their beliefs on everyone using 'dandas' [sticks] like the Lal Masjid extremists [i.e. like the clerics of the Islamabad-based Red Mosque who began implementing Islamic Shari'a by force], it is unfair to tag them as a potential threat to society. They are not monstrous and harmful as many claim but at the same time neither are the Hashmi sisters some sort of superwomen. Nor is Al Huda an inspiration to instill enlightenment or rationality in society.
"So, if you are planning to tip some cash in Al Huda's Ramadan Zakat fund, think twice before doing so. Others are more deserving, and do a better job. We need to be suspicious of anyone who wishes to 'own' Islam and whose practice of it tolerates no other views."
[1] www.alhudapak.com (Pakistan), accessed August 31, 2010.
[2] www.alhudapak.com (Pakistan), accessed August 31, 2010.
[3] The Express Tribune (Pakistan), August 22, 2010.
[4] The Express Tribune (Pakistan), August 31, 2010.
